iPhone Twitter App Now Less Awful

In roughly one month, Twitter's experiment with the Quickbar is complete. The conclusion: People hate it.

The Quickbar -- dubbed "Dickbar" after CEO Dick Costelo -- was an overlaid ad banner in the iPhone's Twitter app that obscured a user's timeline with oft-unrelated topics and hashtags. And there was no way of turning it off. It was immediately deemed a distracting nuisance by countless users and spawned a #Dickbar hashtag.

After a month of numerous complaints like "Please remove the trending topics banner on the top. It is really annoying," and "Quick Bar is obtrusive. Get rid of it," Twitter has decided to rid the timeline from that awful ad banner. Unfortunately, it's only for the time being.

The company posted the news on its official blog:

"Rather than continue to make changes to the QuickBar as it exists, we removed the bar from the update appearing in the App Store today. We believe there are still significant benefits to increasing awareness of what’s happening outside the home timeline. Evidence of the incredibly high usage metrics for the QuickBar support this. For now, we’re going back to the drawing board to explore the best possible experience for in-app notification and discovery."

These "incredibly high usage metrics" you speak of, they wouldn't be -- by any chance -- a product of initial curiosity and then repeated fumbled, accidental clicks? Surely, that has to account for a few hundred thousand, no?

Consider weighing any revenue it generates against millions of frustrated Twitter users, then make your decision.